Staying at Royal Plaza: Use shuttle or drive ourselves?

[ammer0910]

We're staying at the Royal Plaza for our late Oct trip. This will be our first time not staying on property; though I know RP is a "good neighbor" the shuttle is not run by Disney.

Does anyone have experience staying at RP, would you recommend we use their shuttle service or should we just drive our own car to the parks?

Our first day there we have ADR's at Cindy's for 9:15am, so I want to be sure to allow plenty of time.

Thanks!

 

[DisCopper]

I haven't stayed at the Royal Plaza specifically, but I've been at others in the area.

I was never very happy with the shuttle service. They largely ran on schedule, but it wasn't always MY schedule. It seemed like I always just missed one, and had to wait 30 minutes for the next one. When it wasn't peak hours, they did some weird things (like going to the Magic Kingdom, and then to the Animal Kingdom).

I spent a lot of time "cheating," and walking over to Downtown Disney to grab a bus to the Beach Club, where I'd then walk in to EPCOT.

I'd try them, but, unless you give it a lot of time, take the car when you have reservations.

 

[Monorail Bob's dd]

You may want to post this in the Orlando hotels section for more information.

 

[Lynne M]

I'll move this over to the Orlando Hotels board.

 

[keholman15]

I think you'd better drive your car.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

I think you'd better drive your car.

We stayed there once a few years ago when DH had meetings there and we really liked the hotel, but the shuttle service was horrible. DH tried to use it and it took him over an hour to get to Epcot. He said that they went to other parks before they dropped him off.I think they also service other hotels in that area.

I drove every day and it was great!! Not only that, but now even when I stay ON property I have found it much easier to drive.

 

[StevePSU1]

We stayed there last March during Spring Break and had heard horror stories about the shuttle service. Our experience was pretty good. Occassionally we would just miss a shuttle. We used the shuttle service to get to the parks and walked to DTD to get a ride to resorts for dinner. Or you can get the shuttle at DTD to the Contemp and jump on the monorail.